Lupus is a disease that forces the immune system to attack healthy tissue. It affects about 1.5 million Americans. Ninety percent of these Americans are women. Lupus is a very difficult disease to diagnose because each lupus patient can display different symptoms. The number of symptoms can also vary between patients. There are 4 different categories of lupus. [...]
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Genes No gene or group of genes has been proven to cause lupus. Lupus does, however, appear in certain families, and when one of two identical twins has lupus, there is an increased chance that the other twin will also develop the disease. These findings, as well as others, strongly suggest that genes are involved in the development of lupus. Although lupus can develop in people with no family history of lupus, there are likely to be other autoimmune diseases in some family members. Certain ethnic groups (people of African, Asian, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Island descent) have a greater risk of developing lupus, which may be related to genes they have in common. Environment While a person’s genes may increase the chance that he or she will develop lupus, it takes some kind of environmental trigger to set off the illness or to bring on a flare. Examples include: * ultraviolet rays from the sun For patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, depression further increases their already elevated risk for cardiovascular disease, researchers said here. In these patients, depression was associated with a nearly four-fold greater risk of subclinical atherosclerosis (OR 3.85, 95% CI 1.37 to 10.87), Carol Greco, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh, reported at the meeting of the American College of Rheumatology. This relationship was independent of several other factors, including age, presence of hypertension, years of education, C-reactive protein levels, and waist-to-hip ratio. » Continue reading Depression and Cardiovascular Disease Linked in Patients with Lupus » |
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